Sunday, July 25, 2010

Lazy Days

Can I pretend that I haven't posted lately because our lives are just a whirlwind of fun?  We are constantly outside, studying nature, frolicking in the fields... ?  But you know me better.  I can pretend 'til the cows come home, but you know I've just been lazy.
But we did go over to Stone Mountain yesterday.  What with the pool being so convenient in the back yard, it's the first time we've been there all summer.  Stone Mountain does have some things that our backyard pool lacks, though.

It has waterfalls, stones to slide down, butterflies, and snails.
And deer so friendly they would hop in the car and come home with you, if you let them.  Travis wanted to bring this one home and eat her.  Must be a boy thing.
We bought him ice cream instead.
Ed loves ice cream!

See, all fun all the time!

But just to keep things from getting boring, we do this...
(I love the Vanna White thing!  And he's never even seen Vanna.)
Playing in waterfalls and diagramming sentences, which is more fun?  Fortunately, we don't have to choose!
And here are the kids with their new toys.  Katie is an even better saver than Travis, and was able to buy herself an ipod a week or so after his birthday. 
At first I thought that the ipods were just going to be one more dumb gadget, but I have found a computer program which will, instead, turn them in to the world's most expensive pack of flashcards!  Actually, I haven't yet put Anki on their ipods -- right now I have it just on my computer, and am entering all of Travis's Latin vocabulary as flashcards, but once I have Latin for both of them, states & capitals, countries & capitals, and some science memory work, I plan to put those ipods to good use! 

Oh, and we had a wonderful rainbow not too long ago.  A full arch. 

I finished selecting the poetry for our co-op to memorize this coming school year.  It wasn't easy, but here are the nineteen "pieces," from which each mom chose sixteen for her kids to memorize:
- Bible verse (a choice of Psalm 23, Psalm 100, Psalm 121, or 1 Corinthians 13: 1-13
- Nicene Creed or Apostles' Creed
- the "Friends, Romans, Countrymen" speech from Julius Caesar, Act 3, Scene 2
- part of St. Francis's Canticle of the Sun
- Kings and Queens of England (the one that starts "Willie, Willie, Harry, Steve...")
- Christopher Columbus, by Stephen Vincent Benet
- Eldorado, by Edgar Allen Poe
- Hernado de Soto, by Benet
- the "Quality of Mercy" speech from The Merchant of Venice, Act 4, Scene 1 (which I can't think about without also thinking about the joke that goes with it... here)
- On His Blindness, by Milton
- Sea Fever, by John Masefield
- The Road Not Taken, by Robert Frost
- Miles Standish, by Benet
- George Washington, by Benet (too many by one author, I know, but it isn't easy finding historically related memory work for ages 7-12!)
- Declaration of Independence (just through "when a long train of abuses and usurpations..."
- Preamble to the Constitution
- The Cow, by Robert Louis Stevenson

After a minor tempest (apparently not all denominations are familiar with the creeds), everyone has picked what they want and has their schedule.  Now all I have to do is plan out the writing assignments for the year and my planning work for co-op will be done!

Monday, July 12, 2010

Sunday's Post

The bishop came up to our church yesterday (Sunday) evening, in all his glory and finery, and officially "installed" our new priest.  It was an impressive service, and really very moving.  He has been with us since early May, and after all my worrying about what sort of a priest we would get, I really think we got a winner.  If only he chanted the liturgy, he would be perfect.  Which is too much to ask, so I am very pleased that he is now installed (Katie was worried about this, as she know that he has a family that sometimes needs him to be home, but I explained that the procedure still allows for some mobility.) and would have to go through all sorts of rigamarole if he decided he didn't like us.

My favorite part of the service was when the priest's wife, who is a Methodist (United?) minister, gave the sermon.  Her central theme, taken from a reading by Anne Lamott, and related to the Gospel reading from John 15: 9-16, was how we are loved and chosen.  It was very good.  But the bit that I thought, "I'll have to tell that to my mom," was the joke, credited to Garrison Keillor, that she started with. Here it is, as well as I remember...

A man died, and he went to Heaven.  He met St. Peter, and started telling him how very pleased he was to be there.  But then he said, "I have to ask... What would it have been like if I hadn't made it?"
   "Well," said St. Peter, "Let me show you." 
    St. Peter took him to a long tunnel, and they started walking down it.  As they passed one of the doors along the tunnel, the man heard terrible weeping and wailing, and he said to St. Peter, "I hate to ask, but who is behind that door, and what did they do?"
    St. Peter said, "Those are the Baptists who were caught dancing."
    They kept going, and they passed another door behind which the man could hear terrible weeping and wailing.  "St. Peter, I hate to ask, but can you tell me who is behind that door, and what did they do?"
     "Certainly," said St. Peter.  "Those are the Catholics who were caught eating meat on  Friday."
     They kept going, and finally came to the last door, behind which the man could hear terrible weeping and wailing.  "St. Peter, the man said, "Who is behind that door and What did they do?"
      "Those," said St. Peter, "are the Episcopalians who were caught eating their salads with their dessert forks!"

After the service we had a very grand sit-down dinner, and Ed tells me that everyone was very careful to eat their salads with the correct fork.   I was in the kitchen all night, first serving up food, then washing dishes, and I don't think fork rules apply if you eat your dinner standing up.  We did get plenty of wine in the kitchen, though, and it was friendly and fun in an "I'm glad I don't do this sort of thing often" kind of way.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Flipping Ducks

Ed, the kids, and I spent much of today volunteering at the Arts Council's Kidfest event.  We did it last year too, and whined enough afterwards about sitting in the blazing sun that this year the ducks were situated under a pavilion.  We also had the bubble table, a job entailing keeping dishes filled with bubble stuff.  The ducks are much higher maintenance.  They insist on going "heads down, tails up," and no amount of setting them firmly in the water will convince them, which means that it is pretty darned easy to pick a duck with a star on his tummy and win a prize.  Not that it really makes much difference, as there is no charge for the games, and when the kids somehow manage not to pick a star-tummied duck at the first try, we just have them try again 'til they succeed.  Last year, this lack of challenge, plus the blazing sun, meant that the ducks were not one of the most popular activities.  This year, though, we were giving these out as one of our prize choices...
Those are Silly Bands, and, according to Travis, they are "The Fad."  I think he must be right, because we had kids (and some of them pretty big kids) busily flipping ducks to win Silly Bands all day.  The kids collect them and wear them on their wrists.  On the one hand, I don't get the appeal of wearing colored rubber bands, but on the other hand I had a great time making up answers when they asked me, "What is this one?"  They're sort of like one of those Rorschach tests, where you look at a puddle of ink and try to decide what it looks like.  For instance, the pink one on the bottom is a sea anemone.  Only, funnily, the older kids seemed to think that they knew what the shapes were, and they never were what I thought they were.  A couple of them told me that my sea anemone was a crown.  Right.
Here Travis is, demonstrating the bubble making apparatus.
And me, with the duck pond.  Those green bags held prizes of various sorts, and I hope they won't use gift bags to hold the prizes again next year because many of the kids, reasonably enough, thought that we were giving them the whole bag when we held it out for them to choose a prize.
Me, again.
And Ed.
We were right next to the water balloon toss, with the results you would expect.  It was warm enough that being splashed from time to time was quite nice.
There were some enormous blow-up slides and climbing houses, and Katie did a lot of playing and a little volunteering.  Travis was a harder worker, but also found time to eat four hot dogs with the works, three snow cones, and chips.  They had a good time.
Our friends who played at the Fourth of July celebration were also playing here.  That little blonde toddler was dancing and dancing on the lawn to the music, just as cute as she could be.

Katie didn't care for the hot dogs, but ate so many snow cones that I lost track (the food was free for volunteers, even those who only worked sporadically).  And she was so pleased with her face paint (which only looks blurring because my lens is dirty).


And a couple pictures from last week...
Doesn't Travis look happy with his science reading?  He said it was interesting (I bought a bunch of Prentice Hall Science Explorer books, used, to fill out the somewhat skimpy Singapore textbooks), but when I asked him to tell me about mitosis he admitted that he had "only skimmed it."  Which is why he will be outlining his science reading for a while and has only himself to thank for the extra work.

Diagramming sentences is always delightful, but it is even more fun when you can brandish a pitchfork while you do it!

Wednesday, July 07, 2010

Wednesday

Yesterday was kind of rough, school-wise.  Math issues.  Again.  I got so frustrated with my darling boy's dreamy, laid-back approach to his work that I dug this out...
I thought it would add emphasis to my sweet (alright, not so sweet) requests to Take His Feet Off the Table, Sit Up Straight, and FOCUS.  He just found it hilarious.

Today we went up to spend the morning and early afternoon volunteering at the Food Closet.  Ed got too tired, but the kids and I had a good time.  But then we got home and Travis still had lessons left from yesterday, in addition to today's math (they only had math scheduled for today, because I am incredibly nice like that).  At six, we were still fixing math mistakes.  I couldn't take any more, so we called it a day and went outside to play.  I love summer!  Dinner was at 8:00 tonight (so fashionable!), and we had two hours of pool and bubble blowing fun!
Bubble Hat!

While I was sitting on the deck, I heard a tremendous crack from the front yard.  I went over to the fence and looked, and the powerlines in front of the parsonage next door and the ones going to our house were swinging wildly.  Further inspection revealed...
There wasn't even a breeze.  Kind of makes me anxious about the maples a little closer to our house, which look to be about the same age.  Fortunately, it didn't take out our power lines.

Macbeth

Travis finally figured out how to get Macbeth off my video camera.  Unfortunately, it is now on Katie's laptop, which doesn't have a dvd burner.  So he put it on youtube.  The video quality isn't great, and with a running time of around 17 minutes I think the audience is limited to the actors & actresses and the parents of the aforementioned.  Finally, in our defense, this was our "quickie" play, where the kids learned their lines and then only rehearsed a few times before the performance.  And none of us read the script through all the way until just before the play, when it was too late to fix all the goofy stuff in it.  But anyway, the kids had a good time and got in some acting practice, and this school year's play is going to be amazingly good.  Travis wants to do Romeo and Juliet.

Because of the length, YouTube required Travis to split the movie into two parts, so here is part 1:


And Part II:

Monday, July 05, 2010

Happy Birthday, Sweet Boy!

Where have the years gone?  Seems like hardly any time since he was just a little guy,

so soft and little, just the right size to pick up and squeeze.
Look at those delicious little thighs!

Gosh, how he used to wear me out!

And today he is twelve.
I can't pick him up any more, but he still fits on my lap.  Barely.  But he is just as sweet and darling and loveable as ever. 

He let Ed and me have our breakfasts before present time, but he was pretty eager.
He's wanted this one for a long time!

Books!  Always the right gift!
We finished Larklight, by Philip Reeve, and the kids couldn't wait to hear Starcross.  Only we were between books and Starcross was wrapped on the mantle, so we started The Lord of the Rings.  Maybe the kids will just read this one to themselves.
This one looks like such fun!

And then, finally, the last package.  He was pretty sure of what was in this one (because he paid for most of it himself, with money that he's been saving and saving, and we just gave him that last necessary chunk of money), and the anticipation was intense.
A gratuitous Emma picture.  Sorry Daddy!

Katie was so excited for her brother!
Wow!

A boy and his iPod touch.  I can't say that I think much of his taste in music, but he's put on a couple pretty cute games.  Doodle Jump is my favorite.

And the cake, which might require some explanation.  That is a Pikachu on it, which is some kind of a Pokemon.  Travis didn't think I'd be up to drawing one, so he decorated the cake himself.  And then we found that we were all out of candles.  Except for a several times used "7" and a slightly used "5."  Which, conveniently, add up to "12."  Fortunately, Travis is used to my lack of household organization and slapdash methods and was happy to blow out whatever sort of candles we wanted to use and get on with things.  He is such a good, easy going kid.

Happy Birthday, Sweet boy.  We love you!

Sunday, July 04, 2010

Happy Fourth of July!

We had ours yesterday.  Our July 4th celebration, that is.  On the 3rd.  Because the Fourth, in our little one stop-sign community, is the big, blow-out event of the year -- a twelve hour celebration that begins at 10 am, with the longest parade in the world, (that I've ever seen, anyway) and ends around 10pm with fireworks.  And around here, if you scheduled a parade on Sunday morning, no one would come (and all the church pews would be full of grumpy people).  Thus, the Fourth on the Third.
You wouldn't want to have an emergency around here on the Fourth (Third), since every community for miles around has all their emergency vehicles in the parade.  And after them come all the pick-up trucks, all the old cars, all the '70's cars, all the church youth groups, all the families who could procure flat-bed trucks on which to arrange great-great granny in a rocking chair with four generations surrounding her, all the tractors and combines, all the politicians and aspiring politicians, all the riding lawnmowers and ATV's (this year they weren't technically allowed, but they progressed, engines running, on flat-bed trucks), and all the horses and motorcycles from all the little communities for miles around.  It is quite the parade.

And after the parade, the festivities begin at the park across the street. 
There are bands and singing groups in the bandstand, professional wrestling, organizations selling fair food of all descriptions, raffles for quilts, etc., and then, after lunch, there are the children's games.
Travis and Katie should have been in different age categories, but Travis told Katie that she could pass for nine and team up with him, and no one was checking id's.
Here is Katie in the sack race (in the blue shirt)
and Travis in a red shirt (his sack had a hole in it).
Here they are at the beginning of the wheelbarrow race.
Katie doesn't have much upper body strength,
but Travis got her across the finish line anyway.

And then the three legged race.
They didn't fall until they'd crossed the finish line!

And finally, the egg toss.
I think the woman beside Travis is telling him to back up.  If so, she might have done better to leave him alone, because...
Katie tossed crooked and hit the girl standing beside Travis right in the face.  Travis found this hilarious, and, fortunately, the girl took it in good part.

After the games, our friends started to show up. 
We have such talented friends!  These children played and sang beautifully for more than twenty minutes (filling much more of their half hour slot than I had expected they would), until finally the boy in the middle couldn't take any more and kicked his brother in the foot as a subtle sign that it was time to Finish the Song Already.  We were so proud of them.

And then it was time to play in the pool and eat. 
More friends arrived, and the grown-ups spent the rest of the afternoon and evening eating and talking, while the kids alternated between the pool and the entertainments across the street. 
 Then we all watched a really excellent fireworks show from our front yard, and the day was done.  It was really a glorious Fourth/Third!

And these are pictures from last week...
Travis made this tapdancing fellow to amuse me when I was a bit down in the dumps.  If everyone had a Travis there would be no market for Prozac.

And Harry, teaching grammar...
With that malevolent glare on you, would you dare mistake an indirect object for a direct?   I didn't think so!